An airborne vehicle equipped with electro-optical sensors flies over a target area to capture real-time video footage of the target area so that an operator of the vehicle can monitor the target area. The real-time video footage is streamed from the electro-optical sensors to the operator so that the operator can watch the streaming video of the target area in real-time. For example, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) streams real-time video footage of an area to the operator who is monitoring the area for illegal activity.
The streaming of real-time video footage from the electro-optical sensors to the operator occupies a significant portion of bandwidth for the communications network of the airborne vehicle. A communications network that is sufficiently robust to support the streaming of the real-time video footage is expensive while occupying a significant portion of space in the airborne vehicle and/or adding significant weight to the airborne vehicle. A significant portion of the real-time video footage streamed to the operator is redundant and is unnecessary for the operator to adequately monitor the target area. Thus, valuable bandwidth, space, size, cooling, weight, and/or power (SCWaP) for the airborne vehicle are apportioned to accommodate unnecessary real-time video footage. Further, airborne and/or ground based transmitters that have the capability to stream real-time video footage captured by the electro-optical sensors to the operator are also quite expensive and thus adding significant amount of unnecessary cost to the system.
For example, the operator may analyze real-time data and/or stored data processed by a conventional computing device via a conventional display. The conventional computing device may stream data in real-time from a conventional sensor system to the operator as the data is captured by the conventional sensor system. Substantially all of the data captured by the conventional sensor system is streamed in real-time by the conventional computing device to the operator. Streaming substantially all of the data captured by the conventional sensor system in real-time to the operator requires a significant amount of bandwidth to be provided by a conventional network for the operator to adequately monitor the target area. Equipping the conventional network to adequately stream substantially all of the data captured by the conventional sensor system in real-time to the operator for the operator to adequately monitor the target area is a costly endeavor. Further equipping the conventional network to adequately stream substantially all of the data captured by the conventional sensor system requires additional antennas, larger antennas, larger transceivers, additional cooling devices, and/or additional power devices.
Failing to equip the conventional network to adequately stream substantially all of the data captured by the conventional sensor system in real-time to the operator for the operator to adequately monitor the target area increases the risk that the conventional network may fail to transmit the required data in a sufficient amount of time while streaming the data. Failing to transmit the required data in a sufficient amount of time by the conventional network may result in lost data that is not streamed to the operator. The conventional computing device does not have control of the data that is lost during the transmission failure of the conventional network. Substantially all of the data captured by the conventional sensor system during the transmission failure of the conventional network is lost regardless of whether the data is required by the operator to adequately monitor the target area. Thus, data required by the operator to adequately monitor the target area may very well be lost during the transmission failure of the conventional network. As a result, the operator may not be able to adequately monitor the target area when the conventional network fails to transmit the required data in a sufficient amount of time.
The conventional computing device may store data captured by the conventional sensor system to be analyzed by the operator. Storing substantially all of the data captured by the conventional sensor system requires a significant amount of additional storage devices to be placed on the vehicle. The vehicle may not have the physical capacity for the additional devices such that additional devices cannot be installed on the vehicle. Failure to install the additional devices may result in lost data captured by the conventional sensor system that may compromise the ability of the operator to adequately monitor the target area. The addition of the devices may occupy valuable space on the vehicle that may be otherwise utilized for more valuable equipment such as additional sensors. For example, replacing additional sensors with the devices noted above decreases the quantity of data captured by the conventional sensor system and provided to the operator. The decrease in the quantity of data captured by the conventional sensor system may compromise the ability of the operator to monitor the target area adequately. The additional equipment also increases the weight added to the vehicle, takes up additional space in the vehicle, and/or uses more power which adds significant cost and/or difficulty in capturing the data for the operator.